Date: Fri 23-May-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDREA

Quick Words:

snapshot-Caposella

Full Text:

SNAPSHOT PRISCILLA CAPOSELLA

Occupation: Which one? Quite a few. I raise (breed) my own dogs - poodles now

although for awhile I did both poodles and shepherds. I take care of Newtown

Animal Welfare, place strays and unwanted animals. We have 11 dogs right now,

eight are my own, and five cats. When the kids were younger we had horses,

chickens, goats, guinea pigs - you name it. For 25 years I was a foster

parent; sometimes we had seven boys here at a time. I've also done day care

for the past 14 years. Stephanie Goetz is my assistant. We have nine children,

from four months to 11 years old. They've been raised here, basically. The

older ones now come after school.

Family: My husband, Fred, and our sons, Fred, who is 36, Brett, 33, and Alan,

29. Alan is retarded; he helps me with the dogs. He was our first foster

child. We adopted him when he was 10 years old. He graduated from the program

at the Newtown Middle School when he was 21. We had 89 foster children - all

boys - over the years. Some stayed as long as four or five years. They are

like your own so it was hard to let them go. I'd cry when they'd leave, even

if they hassled me - teenagers can be tough to raise. Now we have four

grandchildren, all girls. And my mother lived with us for 17 years.

What do you find most fulfilling about your work: This is exactly the life I

wanted. I wanted to have children and animals. I couldn't have any more

children after Brett was born so we started to take in foster children. We

always gave all our kids a lot of responsibility. We figured that's the only

way they will make it out there. I always felt it was important. Years later

they came back and said "Thanks, Mom." They call me out of the blue to tell me

what they are doing now. The week before Mother's Day I won the Super Mom of

the Day award (from an area radio station) after my daughter-in-law, Kathy,

nominated me. We're very close. I always wanted animals, too. When I was

growing up we couldn't have animals. My parents said we would have all the

pets we wanted when we grew up and had our own families. So I did.

How long in Newtown: Since 1967. We lived around the corner on Wiley Road,

then we built this house (on Hattertown Road) in 1972. We needed a bigger

house.

Biggest change in town: The building, the construction, the sewers. We travel

the roads to take the (day care) kids to nursery school at Trinity and pick

them up so we've been very aware of the sewer work.

Hobbies: I'm not a person who does arts and crafts. I do read a lot -

newspapers, magazines - books take too long. I'm not a person who can just sit

and read. My husband was a tractor trailer driver for years, and I didn't want

to be alone so I did kids and animals.

Organizations: Newtown Animal Welfare, of course. Besides taking care of the

animals, I do the fund-raising, I do the vet, I do the advertising. I'm pretty

good at getting people to help me. I also was involved with Special Olympics

and was a member of WeCAHR.

Favorite place outdoors in Newtown: I love the top of Castle Hill Road, the

beautiful view from what was Dr Gretch's property.

Personal philosophy: I always want to do more, and I'm not happy unless it's

done perfectly. We're all perfectionists in this family. But you have to have

patience - you can't take in foster kids if you don't have patience. I want to

grow. I never want to sit still and be the same. Fortunately, I don't need

much sleep.